knizer

#FreshPond has a public 9 hole golf course run by the City of #CambridgeMA

The course is almost 100 years old, and Boston area land usage has changed significantly since then. Some people believe that having a golf course this close to Boston is a critical recreation facility. Some people believe that the ecological impact of golf courses is too high, and that they are a byproduct of a different era.

As we think about changes we need to make to mitigate #Climate change and serve the changing needs of residents, I wonder:

What should the City of Cambridge do with the golf course over the next 25 years? #Boston #MAPoli

Keep the historic golf course as is
2.2%
Reduce course size, re-allocate for other uses
11.1%
Convert to public park/keep as public green space
51.1%
High Density Affordable Housing
35.6%
Poll ended at .
Jun 21, 2024 at 3:54pmWeb
Show threadknizerJun 21, 2024

It has been brought to my attention that a 5 minute drive from the Cambridge course is a private, 18 hole course, in #WatertownMA, the Oakley Country Club.

I'm now less inclined to argue that the Boston metro area needs so many golf courses, so close to one another. #CambridgeMA

Show threadApiaryJun 21, 2024
@knizer there’s a big difference between accessing public and private courses.
Show threadknizerJun 21, 2024
@Apiary oh? Say more.
Show threadApiaryJun 21, 2024
@knizer public courses tend to be cheap and open to everyone. This is usually not true of private clubs.
Show threadApiaryJun 21, 2024
@knizer one of these courses is 35 bucks for 18 holes. The other is members plus guests, does not list day prices or membership fees. They do list that they do not allow denim.
Show threadknizerJun 21, 2024

@Apiary Weird how golfers would not want to have their courses open to everyone, to make it easy for more people to enjoy playing the game.

Exercise for the reader to speculate on historical and current reasoning there.

Show threadknizerJun 22, 2024

with 30 votes, and 'keep the historic golf course as is' having 3% - my math says but one voter wants to maintain the status quo.

I mean, this is the boston fediverse crowd who is probably toot-voting from their bikes while listening to NPR's new 'all affordable-housing-plans considered' podcast, so the demographic is a bit skew.

Still. Parks. #CambridgeMA

anyway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CWfPUrmeiU

obviously your not a golfer

YouTube
Show threadTed AronsonJun 22, 2024
@knizer yeah this broke down almost exactly as I expected it to
Show threadCraig PJun 21, 2024
@knizer If it remains owned by the city of cambridge, housing would be amazing. Imagine housing not owned by a billionaire extracting money from the city.
Show threadknizerJun 21, 2024
@Craigp Housing is harder and harder to find, hedge funds already control so much of the city. #EatTheRich
Show threadbrucyJun 21, 2024
@knizer
Really good question and I don't know which way I go.
I'd love more housing everywhere, but having recreation spaces is also really important.
Show threadknizerJun 21, 2024

@brucy I'd be curious if the city has done demographics and metrics about course usage, especially compared to the City's more general-use public parks.

I'd wager that a significant minority (maybe 10%) of Cambridge has ever used the Fresh Pond course to golf, but a vast majority (maybe 90%) have enjoyed one of the City's more general-use public parks. And gosh, do we ever need more housing built in the #Camberville area.

Show threadAri OfsevitJun 21, 2024
@knizer golf courses are terrible lane use and not great green space. I voted green space because this land adjacent to fresh pond is sort of a swamp and not super transit accessible, but I’d support a bit of high density housing with a better connection to alewife and a lot of non-golf green space.
Show threadknizerJun 21, 2024

@Ofsevit True, but the 75 bus goes straight to Harvard regularly, and its a 12 minute bike ride to either Alewife or Harvard (though going through the rotary from Concord Ave to Alewife Brook Pkwy is a deathtrap).

I'm not a fan of new building construction that close to water anyhow, swampiness is right and probably for the best to convert to park and preserve the green as long as we can. ✌️

Show threadAri OfsevitJun 24, 2024

@knizer The portion adjacent to Concord Ave is basically two ponds with a fairway in between, not conducive to easily-permit-able development.

Maybe room for a bit of high-density on Huron (say, near the existing towers there, but cHaRaCtEr oF MaH nEiGhB0rH0oD!) on higher ground?

Show threadknizerJun 24, 2024

@Ofsevit Oh, I don't think there's any way the houses abutting the golf course, say along Grove St or Blanchard Rd, would do anything but fight to block any changes to the golf course. Someday with a majority of eco-socialists in the upper part of town government, zoning and permitting laws will bend, with time.

I'd say a long term strategy could be for the city to buy those properties near the golf course, when the come on the market, with the stated intent of an overall redevelopment plan for the fresh pond golf course.

The tricky thing is the town line and where it falls. Thinking a little outside the box, what if the Belmont Grove Street Playground area could be repurposed as a less swampy, further from the water lot, and do high-density there. And then watertown does a swap so there's a couple ballfields and tennis courts on the other side of Grove, on the current southwestern part of the golf course.

This is all a pipe dream, because belmont/cambridge NIMBYs, but I'm in 'crazy idea mode' so let us dream of complicated pipes.

Show threadrednikkiJun 21, 2024
@knizer Ugh. I have so many mixed feelings. We need open space. I hate to think about golf dying (it was my dad's favorite sport to play) and a public course gives everyone access. Golf is still also legitimately a thing where people network, so having a place where anyone can learn would actually be a non-obvious way to help disadvantaged people move forward. (My dad was a refugee, and there is NO DOUBT that the fact that he was also a good golfer helped his career.) But we also really, really need housing.
Show threadknizerJun 21, 2024

@rednikki I mean...if golf goes away tomorrow, by fiat, networking won't stop happening, the path to upward mobility via networking will just shift somewhere else.

Maybe we'll see Upscale Putt-Putt for Executives take its place. Or Bocce or Darts or Curling or Disc Golf. I'm actually sort of excited about what that might look like, you know?

Show threadrednikkiJun 22, 2024
@knizer If we get rid of a public golf course, it just means that people who aren’t rich won’t be able to play. The networking will still happen amongst those who could afford to learn on private courses.
Show threadknizerJun 22, 2024
@rednikki ah, then you’ve persuaded me: we reclaim the private Watertown one first 🤣
Show threadrednikkiJun 22, 2024
@knizer Now THAT is the proper order of things. (It’s bigger too!)
Show threadknizerJun 22, 2024

@rednikki
Totally could get it done by 2040.

Step 1. Cajole leftists to primary all the seats of Watertown City Council for November 2025, and get a Eco-Socialist City Manager in there, too.

Step 2-5 ?????

Step 6 Climate Change is Solved